424 THE S A MOAN ISLANDS 



l)osition of Tupa, or King. Curiously enougli. the name Malietoa is 

 not one of them. It means " well done, fighting cock," and was given 

 to a hero who distinguished himself in the Tongan wars. Its imjiort- 

 ance lies in the fact that it carries with it, vjtso facto, the third 

 and fourth of the titles just referred to. The claim of the present 

 Malietoa Tanu to be king was that his father Malietoa Jjaupepa be- 

 queathed to him the title of Malietoa, which gave him two titles. 

 Then some of the talking-men of Aana and Atua conferred on him 

 the otlier two. Further, Tamasese, who claimed that he had an in- 

 dependent right to these, resigned his rights in favor of Tanu. In 

 like manner Mataafa received two of his titles — Lord of Aana and 

 Lord of Atua — from the talking-men of these provinces, while certain 

 Malietoa talking-men gave him the titles of that name. Thus, accord- 

 ing to Samoan custom, both candidates for the kingship may have 

 possessed the necessary qualifications for it, and tlie matter may have 

 been able to be settled only by fighting it out or by the resignation 

 of one of the candidates. It is clear from Sanioan traditions that in 

 early times there was no king, in the sense of the head of a monarch- 

 ical government. The four or five great titles which stand out above 

 the others were but occasionally^ united in the same hero, and then 

 only until another arose who took them away. The early mission- 

 aries, wisiiing to ])rovide some fixed government and a single ruler 

 upon whom they might exert infiuence, develoi)ed this idea into a 

 kingship. In historic times no king has held undis-puted sway in the 

 islands, and Malietoa Laupepa, of whom our information is fullest, 

 was hardly recognized at all outside the town of A{)iaand the district 

 of Tuamasanga, from which he came. As has already been observed, 

 oftice in Samoa can by a strange confusion be both hereditar}^ and 

 elective. The king must have the four or five titles conferred on 

 him, but he must also belong to one of the two fiimilies of Tupua and 

 Malietoa. Here, again, is a confusion, for Malietoa is a famil}' name 

 as well as a title. Any man of the family may call himself Malietoa, 

 l)ut Mataafa also claims the right to be so styled, not by birth but 

 by election, and both he and Tamasese are members of the Tupua 

 family.* 



The white ])oi)ulation, like the native, may be sej)arated into 

 classes — the chief justice of Samoa and the president (or mayor) of 

 the municipality of Apia, the one usuall3'-an American and the other 

 a German, with the consuls of the three powers that Avere part}' to 



*I ain inileVjted to the coiirtesv of one of'tlio Samoan eorninissioiiers i'm- these facts. 



